Escape Into The Wild

Wilding Collective is a unique wilderness hotel offering premium comfort in naturally beautiful and remote locations across the country. With a desire to offer the space necessary to reset, reflect and truly leave behind the stress of day-to-today life, we invite our guests to escape into the wild for an experience that is designed to be anything but mundane.

What is your background and how did you come to launch this brand?

I began my career as a social worker, incorporating animals and nature into mental health services for individuals recovering from trauma. Early on in that journey, I found a need for more funding, policy change and public education to be able to better help those I served. This led to me pivoting from direct services and into advocacy and fundraising. Since then, I’ve spent the last 10+ years producing large scale campaigns and events for various social impact causes. I’ve had the honor of working with global corporations, A-list celebrities, large family offices and incredible change makers.

After a decade of driving macro-level changes, I found myself being drawn back to working directly with both people and nature. For my own mental well-being, I set out to create a business that would help me be more present and connected to myself and my family, while still making a positive impact on the lives of others. I always found that when I took time in nature to play, meditate and recharge, my life would begin to change for the positive. This is exactly what we seek to gift to others through a Wilding experience – the space for what our busy everyday life simply does not offer.

The original plan was to open a glamping location on a beautiful piece of forest that my family owns. While searching for suitable units, I discovered the need for higher quality accommodation options that could provide year round comfort, even in cold climates. This propelled me into the world of modular and eventually to our manufacturing partners, Ethos Modular, in Mexico. Together we have developed an affordable luxury unit that is permitted as Park Model RV in 48 states. Through this hands-on experience, I began realized the tremendous opportunity ahead of me, something that was going to be so much bigger than opening any one location. I can still feel the excitement this realization brought to me.

What is the meaning behind the name?

Wilding is a verb. For us, it means to lose yourself, or find yourself, or perhaps both, all within the surroundings of awe-inspiring wilderness. Our Wilding locations inspire deep appreciation and connection with nature by harmoniously blending untamed environments with uncompromising comfort. We enable guests to disconnect from the demands of daily life, find a deep appreciation for the beauty and wonder of the natural world and leave rejuvenated.

Wilding Hotels

My ultimate goal for Wilding Hotels extends beyond a traditional hotel. I envision wilderness spaces, where individuals can come as they are and allow nature to facilitate their own unique transformation - from stressed to grounded, exhausted to rejuvenated, disconnected to connected.

What makes your offer unique in the market?

Easy, our four core pillars! We measure everything we offer against them. A Wilding experience is guaranteed to have four incomparable aspects:

1. Immersive nature: Simply put, one can expect to feel completely immersed in nature, even while inside their unit. Whether you are out exploring or inside gazing out the window, you will have a front row seat to undisturbed wilderness.

2. Awe-inspiring views: There is something healing and transformative about a view that makes your jaw drop. We offer that experience from the comfort of your bed each and every morning. Our units are designed with more than 30 ft of floor-to-ceiling windows intentionally designed to bring the outside in.

3. Uncompromising comfort: Being so far off the beaten path has never felt so good. From digital concierge and quality customer service, to waterfall shower heads and built-in projectors with drop down screens, we are providing all of the comforts that can be expected from any premium accommodation. Guests never have to choose between comfort and experience.

4. Ultimate privacy: With intentionally fewer units than the industry standard, Wilding Hotels are designed and carefully placed to deliver a sense of privacy and seclusion. It wouldn’t be a Wilding experience if you weren’t next door to nowhere.

What opportunity do you see specifically in the US?

The United States is poised for extreme growth in this market. Given its vast open spaces, national parks, beautiful scenery, and areas yet to be explored, the opportunities are endless for creating unique and immersive wilderness hotel experiences. The US has a large population of affluent travelers who value high-quality and sustainable accommodations, making it the perfect market for Wilding Hotels.

In terms of glamping, we see a lot of competition and saturation in the entry level of the markettents and domes with ADRs of 200-$350/ night. On the other end of the spectrum, there are some incredible resort-like options where one will spend thousands of dollars for a weekend. In between, there are a handful of boutique brands that offer higher quality accommodations and services successfully pulling ADRs between $500-800 a night.

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We aim to make Wilding a ‘flagship’ brand in this segment of the market, with dozens of locations opening across the country in the near future.

What kind of operating models do you offer?

We have three focuses right now. The first and most simple is selling our units to glamping operators who want to provide a higher quality accommodation option while maintaining their own brand. This year we have only 20 more units available for purchase. Next year we expect to have 60 units available.

For the hotel brand, we have two partnership structures. The first is for land developers or land owners who have access to incredible land, love the brand and vision of Wilding but don’t want to be involved in the day-to-day operations, marketing, booking and customer service. In this case, we work out a revenue share with the land owners then we take it from there.

For our second structure, we partner with like-minded entrepreneurs who have access to land and can run operations themselves, but who do not have the capital for vertical development. Wilding Hotels provides high-quality modular units, expert marketing, and a unified brand to deliver a luxury experience to our customers. Our partners provide the land and operations and together we work out a revenue share.

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Who is your customer for the structures and who is your guest in the hotel?

Our main customers for the structures are essentially our competitors for the hotelglamping operators who want to provide higher quality accommodations in search of higher ADRs. That doesn’t bother us though, we believe there is an abundance of opportunity in this space and there is nothing like a little competition to push you to do your best!

We believe our guests for Wilding Hotels are those who want to slow down a bit. They are high achievers who run 100 MPH for weeks or months on end early mornings, late nights, long meetings, and stressful demands. They feel the pressure, regardless of how successful they’ve been. They want a place for that pressure to fade into the background, if not disappear. A place and space where they can just be.

Where can we see the first Wilding Hotels?

Well, you’ll have to stay tuned for an official announcement in May, but our first locations will be found in Utah, Alaska, Texas and Montana. Right now, our backdrops span from red rocks to glaciers and we are on track for hosting our first guests this summer. Who knows, maybe a new location will come about from someone reading this article.

How could someone get in contact with you?

I’d love to connect! Feel free to shoot me an email or text and let’s find a time to talk – Jacqueline Baumer, (801) 599-4144 or jacque@wildinghotels.com.

Jacqueline Baumer